Is The Catholic Church For You?

From the death of Christ until the 1500s, there was basically one universal church, the Catholic church. Therefore it comes as no suprise that the word 'catholic' means 'universal'. To be sure, Catholicism as a sect was challenged in various ways by other interpreters of the Bible, but these various people, such as the Anabaptists, were considered heretics and frequently experienced painful deaths for their trouble.

Catholicism has an interesting history. It was the Christian church in Europe for fifteen hundred years, during a time when the average person was not able to read. This meant that clergy interpreted the Bible for people, often in ways that benefitted themselves. For example, one controversy was regarding whether Jesus Christ was rich or not. Those who said he was rich were trying to justify the church's wealth. The same controversy still exists, by the way, just in different terms. Some Protestants believe that Jesus was rich and this justifies their focus on personal wealth.

To watch an expert on Catholicism discussing this matter in further detail, I recommend you visit VideoJug.com, and view their free film showing an interview with Father Leo Philomin, a catholic priest.

If you know the Bible, then you know that man is sinful, born into sin, born of sin, and possessing a sinful nature. This was as true of the men (and occasional woman) who were leaders in Catholicism, and we see the same struggle in today's churches of all denominations. While many monks and nuns desired to led spirit-centered lives worshiping God through His Son, Jesus Christ, there were others who went into the 'monastery business' for personal gain. Some monasteries, not surprisingly, were centers of corruption.

In the 1500s, Martin Luther was able to make church reformation stick. He was excommunicated but he wasn't killed. He was concerned about how the Bible was going to be interpreted and he wanted regular human beings to be able to read the Bible for themselves. The moveable-type printing press was invented around this time which allowed the Bible to be distributed. Also, because of Luther's efforts, the Bible was soon being translated into various languages. The first person who translated the Bible into English in the 1400s, Wycliffe, was beheaded. But in 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published and has remained in print since then.

Following the Reformation, Catholicism was one of a number of Christian denominations rather than the Universal Church, although the feeling that ""only members of 'my' church know what it means to be Christian and are going to heaven"" is a pretty common conviction across Christianity.

The challenge of Catholicism comes with its age. By now, many human-originated traditions have been built up in the church that may or may not be Biblical. The idea of the infallibility of the Pope has caused some problems - for example, Galileo was excommunicated and had to be reinstated, some five hundred years later.